HURRICANE GONZALO BATTERS BERMUDA

Hurricane Gonzalo has made a direct hit on the island of Bermuda as a category two storm, carrying drenching rains and punishing winds that plunged thousands of residents into the dark. 

At 0000 GMT on Saturday, the northern portion of the eye of Gonzalo, packing "damaging winds and life-threatening storm surges," moved over the island, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. 

Al Jazeera was told that between 80 to 95 percent of the island has lost power. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 175 km per hour, and was moving northeast at 26 km per hour. 

It is the strongest storm to make a direct hit on the island in a decade. Gonzalo has already killed one person in the Caribbean and caused property damage on neighboring islands before it hit Bermuda, a British overseas territory that is home to around 60,000 people. 

Residents, whipped by winds and rains earlier Thursday as the hurricane approached, reported a strange calm as the center of the storm passed. 

"We are definitely in the eye now, it's completely quiet," said Katie Titterton, a resident  near Grape Bay in central Bermuda.

source: Al Jazeera, Agencies